Posts tagged Life
Working
Feb 5th
I’m going to begin blogging again. I now have the time/structure to be at the computer and able to write my thoughts down more easily. I don’t know if I ever had any readers other than a few church friends, but hopefully this blog will achieve its goal, which is to provide a room for commentary. If Steve G., Nate, JT, Roger, Matt McD, etc. are reading this, take this as my plea for us to re-establish a conVerge blogging community. I sure miss it.
Now, at conVerge Lynchburg we are returning, in our mid-week group and also our teaching on the Sermon on the Mount on Sundays, to some pretty deep ideas about what it is people are for, that is, not just what is our job, but what gives meaning to our lives. In our midweek groups we are going through Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines, which is a pretty standard classic on the “why” of spirituality/discipline. I have had the blessing/curse of reading this book in groups a few times before (i’m especially thinking of the time we read it in RA groups at LU). The reason for the blessing/curse ambiguity is that for perhaps the first time I am being forced to really consider doing what Willard is calling us to do, echoing Christ. I’d, of course, wanted to want to try to attempt to get around to doing some of these things before, but what has been so revolutionary this time (and we are only on chapter 5) is that we’re reading it as a church. We now have the actual structure and posture to encourage each other to live this way, certainly more naturally/healthily than we did in that RA group.
This past group, we talked pretty abstractly about the idea of work. I think we all pretty much assume that we know what work is, and then make the perennial mistake of conflating that idea with what work OUGHT to be. I don’t wanna make this a 5,000 word post, but I do wanna just put it out there that doing some WORK and thinking about work will be a profitable experience for all. One thing that we’ve gradually been concluding at conVerge is that most “jobs” are not work, properly understood. I am arguing in imprecise and unsystematic terms for a higher view of work, one that even goes beyond the call to Mission. In these terms, I have been highly impacted by such cultural critics as Wendell Berry and Neil Postman. Berry especially, in his book of essays What Are People For?, gets the mental gears turning with respect to what is a the proper understanding of work. I don’t mean to here give my theology of work, but I think this would be an appropriate place to ask some questions and see what I get back in response:
Basic to this discussion is a biblical understanding of “dominion”, cf. Genesis 1.26. Are you comfortable with the equation of this “dominion” with “work”?
Postman comments that our generation is going to be mainly employed as symbol-analysts. Of the top of your head what are the problems with calling symbol-analysis work in any substantive sense? Are we willing to accept a, *gasp*, compartmentalization in our concept of work? (ie. the difference between biblical work and wage earning)
If we admit a growing crisis, a growing illiteracy with biblical categories of work, then how do we expect to: 1) speak relevantly to the secular, and 2) make biblical work practical?
I think it is our job as Christ-followers to in some sense pull a Jerry Maguire and abort the attempt to compromise with regard to work. We will be culpable for rationalizing this away, if indeed the radical call to Work is indeed biblical. I’ve already grabbed the fish, who’s coming with me?
An Idea for Offerings
Feb 5th
Well, there’s an idea I’m going to throw out there. Tell me if you like it. I’ve gotten a picture of our church community in the future as it could be, if we want it to be. This community is one that loves God, and loves truth, and values beauty. In trying to figure out how to get us there, or even to get ‘there’ myself, I’ve been thinking about my thesis, and about how I want it to be something for the church, and for God’s glory on behalf of the church. I want to write my thesis (i’m finishing my MA in philosophy fyi) on something that will help the church to make more disciples, to keep us urgently and relentlessly, even strategically, on mission. The idea occurred to me to think of my thesis as an offering that I could give to God on behalf of conVerge. The idea being, I write my thesis for the community, even if nobody reads it, and I really pour myself into it, and direct it to edify the body. This limits me to writing on something that conVerge needs, but this is a good limit. Also, it motivates me, since before I was just writing it to get a degree. Now i’ll be writing it to real people for a real purpose.
This got me thinking about how we ought all to be in this state of preparing offerings like this for God, throughout our lives. I think that even after I, God willing 
, finish my thesis/degree, I’ll still want to do big things like this for God. Now, I don’t mean ‘big things’ as in things that cost a lot of money, and much less things that make a lot of money. Rather, I am thinking of offering as something which stretches us to be more of what God desires, which teaches us to desire that too, which expands our character and ability, and which forces us to depend on community, and celebrate in community. I think after my thesis, I may learn to play a piece by Chopin on the piano. Now, I can barely read music, much less piano music. So this will present me with a daunting task which will take years, but when I think of offering it to God, perhaps on behalf of the church, then it feels right, like this is how we should spend our recreational lives. This mindset gets me dreaming about things that I have always wanted to do or be, and it gives me a reason to do and be them. It also gives me the blessed limit of community, in which I am not doing for myself, or even by myself. You see, I’ll be doing for God (i’ll be sacrificing much time and even money if i need lessons, and not gaining anything but character and ability), and, this is crucial, i’ll be doing on behalf of the church. This is what is really exciting to me, that I might play the piece for my small group, and then tell a testimony about how glad I am that I did it, and how much i’ve learned, and how much I love God. How encouraging it will be to be in the audience of this event, to get to be encouraged and blessed as someone in my body glorifies God on my behalf. How unifying this would be. How happy we would be.
Now, I do not think this is tied solely to music and writing. Really, anything you might dream to accomplish, which is truly good, which seeks the good and beautiful, and pushes you on to seek and think these things, is something worth offering in this way. It should be something that is appropriately hard for you, something that requires much time, practice, and sacrifice. It should take you around a year to prepare, and it should have something to do with the mission. My guess is that pretty much everyone has something beautiful they want to do, and that if we all started living this way, we would create an irresistible culture of beauty and truth. Our church would have such a magnificent history, one you could see in the offerings we’ve given over time, and in our joy-filled lives.
This is very embryonic for me, but I’m going to try to do this with my thesis. What thinkest thou? Stupid idea? Good idea? Good idea, but not every one is artsy? Let me know.
Missional Blogging
Feb 5th
While I am not new to blogging, this is certainly a unique effort on my part to contribute to real community. Unlike other blogs and facebook posts, this effort is one which is striving for a conversation, a community that is harder and harder to actualize in today’s world. As such, as a thing which is a crutch for weakness, I present my new blog with humility. I recognize first, that this avenue for conversation is not ideal. I would much rather meet face to face in a real life gathering to discuss these things, but time and distance are against me here. If you like what I write and you live in Lynchburg, you should come and try a conVerge group, which is the closest I have come to real conversation about church. The second thing I want to state is that I am writing this blog as a learner, not as a teacher. I do not presume to know much that you don’t, nor do I pretend to write solely for your edification, and not my own. I say this because much of what I write about will be consumed with a desire to see the Church (not organized religion but the Body of Christ) repent and turn back to God. Many of my posts will be, hopefully, provocative and confrontational. I believe that it is through confrontation that we grow, and that when iron sharpens iron much pressure is applied. It should be assumed that when I “preach”, I’m mostly preaching to myself.
This blog is different because my whole life, even down to my online persona, is being refined and reconstructed within the context of community. Thus, when I write, I have the members of conVerge in mind. It’s almost how you drive more carefully when somebody else is in the car. I don’t want to be flippant or asinine for the sake of sensationalism. The blog medium is no longer a place for me to say what I was too afraid to say in real life or too afraid that nobody would want to listen to in real life; blogging is now missional for me. If you don’t like the term ‘missional’, get over it. Substitute ‘obedient’ if you like. This blog is an effort to create a conversation about how we live the mission that Christ gave us. Largely, I will discuss my fledgling ideas on what that best life is in the Kingdom of God, and on what the Kingdom of God is or should be.
One final note I would add is that I’m OK with being characterized as an ‘idealist’. Many of my ideas on church and missional living are formed not by what is, but by what ought to be. Thus, many of the things I will talk about or propose will be impossible to attain, or we will at least be at odds as to how to actually get ‘there’. This is good, expected, fine. This happens by virtue of the fact that we’re reaching beyond our human abilities in living missionally. We are trying to live lives that are totally dependent on the providence and blessing of God. Thus, my writing should be characterized by lofty ideals and amazement at the works of God in this world and in these lowly lives.
I plan to post at least once a week, so don’t check my site every 10 minutes like you do facebook, but check it nonetheless. If in the future you find yourself reading my posts regularly but not having made a comment yet, then please start doing so. This blog is not my soapbox when I talk and you read in silence. Please contribute to the conversation because your ideas are important too.
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